


lips on scars (taught me to love)

by starbboy



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Green Lantern - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: First Kiss, Getting Together, Jason's Autopsy Scar, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, accidentally became 15 k whooops, also vague injury descriptions, basically the first words your soulmate says after you fall in love with them are on your body, both of their deaths are mentioned be warned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26560615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starbboy/pseuds/starbboy
Summary: “Jason Todd.” Red - no, Jason - says with a small huff of laughter. Then he gives Hal a two fingered salute and jumps off the roof and away.Jason. It suits him. Hal likes the way it sounds in his accent as well, East Gotham, deep with a little bit of roughness to it that Hal thinks is attributed to smoking. There’s warmth pooling in his stomach and a stupid little grin on his face and Hal is beginning to realise he might be getting a crush on the (ex?) crime lord he met yesterday, which is probably not a good decision.Like, at all.
Relationships: Hal Jordan/Jason Todd
Comments: 16
Kudos: 193
Collections: DCU Rarepair Exchange 2020





	lips on scars (taught me to love)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [QueenOfChaos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenOfChaos/gifts).



> hi! this is my rarepair gift for QueenOfChaos!! I really hope you enjoy!!  
> P.S this was supposed to be fun cute haljay doing dumb things but i got ways too carried away, whoops!

It’s not that Hal hasn’t heard of the Red Hood. Just because he spends a lot of his time outside Earth’s atmosphere doesn’t mean he’s completely out of the loop. Besides, he likes to be aware of who else is competing for the title of ‘Biggest annoyance to Batman’.

It’s just that he’s kind of thrown off his rhythm when he sees said Red Hood easily taking down a group of 30ish men by himself in a warehouse on the outskirts of Coast City. Unless something drastic has changed in the past two months, Hal is certain that the Red Hood's stomping ground was firmly on the other side of America.

He flies down watching as the Red Hood knocks out the last two men using some flippy spinny kick thing that Hal will never be able to do, even if he tries. The man rights himself, shaking out all his limbs and stretching his arms and walking over to the small office and rifling through the drawers.

Hal lands outside and walks in, stepping gingerly over the bodies on the floor. It’s odd, he thinks when he scans them with his ring. None of these men are dead, all just knocked out with bruises blooming on their faces and bullet wounds nowhere other than knees and arms. It doesn’t fit with what Hal’s heard of Red Hood’s MO but he isn’t complaining.

“Lantern.” He hears, head snapping to see the Red Hood watching him from meters away, arm’s crossed and hip cocked to one side. The helmet and voice modulator work to filter out any form of expression for the Red Hood’s face so Hal has no idea how this is going to go.

“Red Hood.” He replies, putting on a smile. “You’re a bit far from home.”

He hears a soft mechanized huff. “Yeah. Decided to go on a cross country road trip this spring break.”

Hal’s smile widens, a little more genuine, a little less on edge as he walks forward.

“Done anything fun on your trip?”

“Coupl’a drug busts, solved some cases. The usual.” Red Hood replies, so dryly that Hal doesn’t know if it’s entirely sarcastic. That helmet really gets in the way of gaging what the Red Hood is feeling.

“Uh, anyway. I got what I was here for. See you around GL.” Hood says, a little awkwardly before walking out a backdoor Hal hadn’t spotted. He stands there for a little while longer, listening to the Red Hood speed away before shaking his head and flying off home.

Hal thinks over that interaction for a while that night, which is odd. He’s met much weirder people and barely batted an eye, but for some reason this just seems significant. It’s odd and he doesn’t like the feeling.

Hal doesn’t know what he’s supposed to think of the Red Hood. He was (is?) a crime lord, murderer and maybe an assassin if Hal’s mind recalls correctly. He attacked Batman and Robin and Mia. But Roy likes him and Kyle’s worked with him and he isn’t dead. (He asked Kyle about that experience once, all he got was mutterings about zombies and Anti-Monitors and red buckets). Hal doesn’t think he’s gone after any hero recently and even though his methods are a bit more of the lethal nature, he seems to be doing good. That would make him an Anti-Hero, Hal thinks, so he’s technically on their side.

He’s also apparently the second Robin come back to life, so there’s that.

Anyway, Hal’s oddly intrigued. And the guy’s in Coast, so he might as well give in to his curiosity.

Tomorrow though. Now he needs to shower and eat.

The water turns cold halfway through the shower, which yeah, he missed paying his heat bill last month because he was in fucking space. It isn’t surprising, an all too common occurrence, but he’s allowed to be annoyed. The cold water does mean the mirror doesn’t fog up though, a small blessing that means Hal can dry his hair so it falls nicely without having to wipe at the mirror every minute.

It does mean that his soulmark is on full display though.

And Hal doesn’t mean to say that he hates his soulmark, not at all. _‘Hey Hal, how are you, wanna go bust some criminals?’_ is a pretty funny soulmark to have, and definitely in character. If anyone were going to fall in love with someone over the suggestion of ‘busting criminals’ it would be him. His mom used to fret over it constantly when he was young.

So, it isn’t the soulmark that he hates, but rather the placement of it. It didn’t bother him when he was a kid, but then his biology teacher just had to give his class a lesson on basic forensic pathology and he was struck with some awful realisation that made him feel sick for the next few days. Because his soulmark, which made half a Y shape starting at his left collarbone and ending just above his belly button, partnered with the accompanying solid black line from his right collarbone to his sternum, looks like a cut off version of an autopsy scar.

And he knew that it’s no coincidence, the two facts all kids know about soulmarks are that A. they’re the words your soulmate says to you when you realise you love them and B. your mark will be placed somewhere on your body that’s significant to them. Hal doesn’t want to think about what kind of person has an autopsy scar as a major significant thing to them. Hal doesn’t want to think _how_ someone can have an autopsy scar as something significant to them. Autopsies are only performed on the dead. And yet here he is, with the lines of an autopsy scar on his presumably alive soulmate, who Hal can already guess has some pretty shitty trauma.

That makes two of them then.

He shuts off that train of thought then, drying off and wandering to the kitchen, picking out a microwave meal he bought the other day. He takes it and settles on the patchy old couch he found at a junkyard and half-heartedly tried to patch up, flipping the lid of his computer (which looks like it also might come out of said junkyard) and balancing it on one leg.

He checks the news first because it is ironically, the site that bombards him with the least information. Twitter and YouTube tend to throw everything at you with too much anger and too little context, at least with the news he can pick and choose.

He then flips straight over to the Superhero/Vigilante subsection because he doesn’t have enough information to care about sport and politics and science beyond general basic facts. Superhero news allows him to keep up with his friends without talking to them and makes him laugh when he spots inaccuracies.

There’s nothing too crazy being reported, a day old article about him being spotted back home, the Justice League helping out with crisis relief after a series of abnormal earthquakes and Ollie doing Green Arrow stuff in Star City. He flicks down to the bottom of the page absently, scan reading titles to find the interesting ones, when a small almost hidden article catches his eye.

_The Red Hood Spotted Near Coast City._

It’s short and pretty informationless, just an account of some woman seeing him driving past her house and mentions of warehouses broken into, but it reminds Hal of his visitor. He doesn’t think Red would like the article, it’s not noticeable on the new site but anyone with an alert on his name would know he was hanging around now. Besides, it keeps calling him a Crime Lord and Hal is pretty certain the Red Hood has moved on from that.

Mostly certain. Kind of certain. Okay he’s certain enough to convince himself but wouldn’t really advise anyone else to trust him.

He’ll ask him tomorrow, he decides. Shutting off his laptop and heading to bed.

If he can find him tomorrow.

* * *

As it turns out, finding the Red Hood is not a hard task. All he has to do is look for exploding warehouses. And since exploding warehouses are not a very common thing in Coast City it doesn’t take long.

Hal walks in on the end of a massacre this time, compared to the PG (at least in Red’s book) bust yesterday. At least 3 people are dead, the ones who look like the leaders. All the henchmen seem to either have been knocked out or given the chance to escape.

Red Hood is standing in the middle of it all, blood pooling around his feet as bodies lie scattered. The dying down blaze of the warehouse that used to sit next door frames Red Hood though the shitty plastic windows, giving the whole scene an extra little kick and the man himself looks impassive as ever, one of his feet propped up on a corpse's head as he cleans his guns.

His mind helpfully supplies that the action is kind of hot, but Hal bats that thought away before he can register it.

“Nice to see you again Red.” He smiles, perching on a destroyed window ledge.

“What are you doing here?” Straight to the point then.

“Thought I’d see what you were up to, maybe lend some will power if needed,” Hal shrugs, “But it seems that you’ve got it all done and dusted.”

“Almost.” Red grunts, walking over to his bike. Hal follows him silently, “Have to interrupt a shipment at the docks and then we're done.”

“What’s the shipment of?”

“Bombs. And ammunition. All illegal.” The Red Hood hops on his bike, revving the engine and zooming off, it takes Hal a moment to catch up.

“Somehow I feel like that takes priority over attacking a bunch of suits. What gives?” Hal asks incredulously, intercepting the goods seems more important than interrupting a get together, however shady.

“Didn’t want them to be prepared for attack.” And okay, Hal gets that. He doesn’t respond though and they speed round the outskirts of town silently.

Red jumps straight into action when they reach the docks, pointing out the shipment then attacking, Hal watches as he fights, half mesmerised as he struggles to focus on helping out. The man is definitely a heavy hitter, he throws as much weight as he can into each move while still allowing himself opportunities to switch quickly. Everything he does is practical; he seems intently focussed on taking these people down but somehow, he still manages to add some flair and grace into his movements. There are moves Hal can pick out from all these years of working with Batman, but there are also a few dirtier tricks Red Hood pulls, much to Hal’s delight, and he knows Batman didn’t teach him those.

He tears his eyes away after a bit, making a big construct net to scoop some of the men up into and then dumping them on the top on a stack of crates, dissolving the net and constructing handcuffs for them all in place.

Someone must have called the cops, because Hal can hear sirens in the distance and a particularly loud string of expletives from below him, he looks down to see Red Hood barrel through the last few men and run towards the crates, Hal constructs handcuffs for them and follows the vigilante.

“The cops will be here in a minute; I can explain this all if you want to scram.”

“We’re just gonna leave this to them?” Red’s tone is clipped, clearly frustrated.

“Do you see any other options? What would you have done with all this shit anyway?” Because yeah, he’s not a fan of getting the cops involved either, but this is something they can probably deal with.

“Fine.” He can’t see Red’s expression, but Hal has no doubt that it’s just some variation of pissed off. He takes one of the Bat Grapple things the Spooks obviously made when he was pissed off about not being able to fly and swings off into the distance, just in time because the police cars screech into the docks then.

Hal sighs, puts on his best ‘customer service’ smile and prepares to explain the situation based on the minimal information the Red Hood gave him.

* * *

He sees the Red Hood again later that day, skulking around on a roof while he’s in line at the chilli dog stand. He buys an extra one on impulse before ducking into an alley to suit up and flying up to meet him. Unsurprisingly, the other man doesn’t react.

“Didn’t think you’d stick around.” He says when landing, dematerialising his mask.

“Had to make sure it was all dealt with.” 

“What, don’t trust me?” Hal jokes, he isn’t offended, after years of working with Batman this is very tame. “You Bats and your paranoia.”

“Not a Bat.” Red replies, and there’s some undertone to the way that he says it that makes Hal frown but he dismisses it. He’s here to eat chilli dogs, not get involved in Gotham Drama.

“You Red Hoods and your paranoia then. Is said paranoia going to get in the way of me giving you food?”

“Better.” He’s sure he can hear a smile, or at least amusement in Red’s voice. “And- uh- thanks.” The other man says, taking the offered chilli dog. Hal interprets that as an offer to eat together and he sits down next to Red Hod on the ledge taking an admittedly ungraceful and messy bite of his chilli dog. There’s only one person here to judge and Red doesn’t seem like the type to go around gossiping about his shitty table manners.

Red seems frozen in place for a second, before he shakes his head, puts the chilli dog down gingerly and lifts his hand to the back of his head to unclasp his helmet. Hal watches with curiosity as Red takes it off, he doesn’t think he’d ever seen the man without it, in person or in pictures.

And he’s gotta say, he was not expecting the helmet to be pulled off to reveal a messy mop of hair and freckles dotted on tan skin. When he imagined the Red Hood he always figured the man would have short hair, like a lot of the guys in the military did with a couple of ugly but mysterious scars running along his face as one would expect of a hardened crime lord and former dead person (and maybe Hal followed media stereotypes with that one, he died and he doesn’t have any crazy looking scars) but the Red Hood decidedly does not look like that. 

His hair is curly, styled in a bit of an outgrown undercut, mostly black but there are small streaks of white dotted around, most notably a patch right at the front of his hair. The white shows up in his eyebrows as well and Hal can’t help but wonder where it came from. There are a few scars, one that runs down over his lip, making it so a bit of his teeth show even when his mouth is closed and there's another one across his jaw just below his left ear silverly and stark against his dark skin. There are freckles there as well and Hal can’t help but be amused that the Red Hood, feared crime lord, scourge of Gotham, has freckles. 

He’s handsome, Hal realises watching as Red’s mouth curls into a smile that screams mischief watching Hal’s reaction, and the thought shocks him, but it’s true. Red is very much handsome, roguishly so, with sharp features and a grin that suggests trouble. Hal takes another large bite of his food to distract himself.

He’s still wearing a domino mask, so Hal can’t see his eyes, much to his disappointment but also-

Swallowing, Hal clears his throat, “You wear a mask under a helmet?”

Red laughs softly, “Everyone seems to ask that. This thing breaks too often for me not to wear one.” He says patting his helmet, “had to stop wiring explosives into it after the first couple of times.”

Hal almost chokes on his chilli dog, “You put explosives? In your helmet? The thing on your head? You put explosives into that?”

Red takes his sweet time answering, the corner of his mouth flicking up as he chews, “The rumours that I was crazy had to come from somewhere, Hal.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy.”

Red’s smile turns a little bitter and strained, it’s amazing how expressive he is. All the Bats he’s met can be just straight up brick walls of repression when they want to be. Maybe that’s why Red wears that helmet.

“I don’t think I’m crazy anymore either.”

They eat in awkward silence for a bit, wind picking up around them. Red doesn’t meet his eyes instead staring straight ahead. Hal doesn’t like it.

“How long are you staying in town?” He asks after a while, itching to break out of the uncomfortable tension they’ve created.

Red tilts his head, considering. “Depends, there’s another case I can work on around here but it’s not high priority. Why?” 

“Thought, if you were sticking around, you might want a tour guide. Offers open for a week, I’m in space after that.” Hal shrugs, he hopes Red doesn’t read too much into it. It’s probably a futile hope, Red was trained to read into things.

“Sure, I guess. Why not.” He replies, the amused smile from earlier returning. And, huh, Hal was fully expecting to be rejected, Red doesn’t seem like the guy to skip out on research so what use would a tour guide be?

“Great! Tomorrow, 12 sound good?”

“Should be. Meet outside your apartment building?” Oh, Red knows where he lives now? It’s concerning how unconcerned Hal feels about that.

“Yeah.” He replies, smiling. Red smiles back, it’s a nice smile, lopsided and maybe a little dangerous, but nice.

Red stands up, moving to leave when Hal calls after him again.

“I never got your name!” Red stops and turns around, the helmet cradled in his hands.

“Jason.” He says, then after a pause, “Todd.”

Hal frowns. “Jason or Todd?”

“Jason Todd.” Red - no, _Jason_ \- says with a small huff of laughter. Then he gives Hal a two fingered salute and jumps off the roof and away.

Jason. It suits him. Hal likes the way it sounds in his accent as well, East Gotham, deep with a little bit of roughness to it that Hal thinks is attributed to smoking. He’s not as growly as Batman is, thank fuck because sometimes Hal gets so irritated by his stupid ‘I am the night, I am justice’ gargle that he wants to punch him in the throat. It really grates on you after a while.

There’s warmth pooling in his stomach and a stupid little grin on his face and Hal is beginning to realise he might be getting a crush on the (ex?) crime lord he met yesterday, which is probably not a good decision. 

Like, at all.

But there’s something weirdly comforting about the feeling, Hal hasn’t felt properly interested in someone for a while. He kind of wants to see where this goes.

* * *

True to his word, Jason is sitting on the wall in front of his apartment building the next morning, when Hal walks out at 12:07. He’s wearing jeans and a leather jacket (which Hal really hopes isn’t a portable arsenal like the other one, it doesn’t seem to have the armour plating at least) and sneakers that might have been white once long ago. He looks up when Hal approaches jumping off the wall easily and landing to meet him with a small smile and a raised eyebrow.

“Afternoon.” Hal says.

“Just.” Jason replies.

There’s an awkward pause of silence then, which gives Hal the opportunity to look at Jason’s eyes, not covered by the domino mask while he’s in civilian form. They’re an eerily unnatural vibrant green, stark against his skin. They’re different to Guy’s eyes (whose natural dark green is sort of enhanced by the ring) or John’s (whose glow bright green, the same colour as their rings), Jason’s shade is harsher, teetering on the edge on neon. The colour reminds Hal of sciencey mixtures or poison in children's cartoons, he’d describe the shade as toxic if it was a nice descriptor. Hal privately thinks the colour looks much nicer on Jason’s face than it ever did in those cartoon episodes, but that would be a weird compliment to make so he keeps the thought to himself.

He realises he’s been staring when Jason clears his throat, “Uh, well then. Where to Mr Coast City?”

Right. So, as it turns out, after organising this, Hal literally didn’t plan anything out. He completely forgot about the need to plan by the time he got home so now he literally has nothing. He knows a couple fun hotspots but that’s it. He’s not going to tell Jason that though.

“Depends. What are you interested in?” That’s good, narrows down options and shit. Gives him time to think.

Jason raises his eyebrow and one side of his mouth twitches up. “Books, food. Are there any good museums here?”

Books. Why couldn’t he say something easy like planes or the beach or monuments. Hal’s interest in books is minimal at best, you don’t get much time for light reading when you’re trying to save the universe.

He smiles though, looking down at Jason (because holy shit the guy is a couple inches shorter than him, Hal never noticed when he was floating). “Coast City Library and the Natural History Museum are near each other in midtown. There’s some pretty good exhibits there if you want to go see.”

Jason shrugs with some form of badly faked apathy that Hal can’t decipher the use of, “Sounds great. Lead the way.”

Hal grins, resisting the urge to grab the other man’s hand, which is covered in half-fingered biker gloves, before walking off down the street.

It takes a while to get there, they opt for walking through the city rather than taking public transport, which leads to Jason asking questions about a lot of the monuments they pass, acting like a very curious tourist. Hal doesn’t mind, it gives him an opportunity to pass off all the stupid useless facts he’s learnt about Coast over the years on someone actually willing to listen.

The other reason it takes so long is because Jason somehow manages to spot some little bookstore on a street they were passing and ends up spending half an hour browsing and explaining the plots of several classics to Hal. It all goes over his head - Austen and Dickens or whoever was never really his style. He was more one for comics and Tintin (Jason’s lips press together in a barely contained smile when Hal tells him that).

Hal realises, while listening to Jason talk through his issues with the plot of Wuthering Heights, that the man looks absolutely _adorable_ when rambling. Even the dim, lightly dusty light of the shop can’t hide the way his eyes shine as he spoke and the way his mouth twists rapidly from expression to expression depending on the mood of the section of the plot he was explaining. His arms fly about in wide gestures that were not made for narrow shop aisles and caused Hal to step back more than once but somehow matched his facial expressions in a way that was positively endearing.

He looked so passionate, the way Kyle could get about art or Guy could be about any topic on his mind, but looking into the other man’s eyes Hal also saw flashes of nervousness, as if Hal, who had offered to be his tour guide and who had followed him into some old bookshop would deflect and ignore him, for some reason. And then Hal thought back to what little he knew of the Red Hood’s rocky past and he realised that maybe Jason has a reason to be guarded, maybe it’s an unconscious self-defence thing to stop history from repeating itself.

He doesn’t like that Jason has been shut down enough for that look to have developed.

So maybe he listens in more after he realises that, and maybe he asks questions when he can get a words in, continuing the conversations with a quietly thrilled Jason as he leads the man out of the shop and back on route, manoeuvring him gently whenever he gets to into it and threatens to accidentally backhand a civilian with his gestures.

It really isn’t helping whatever stupid mini crush that’s been forming since yesterday, not in the slightest, but Hal’s too enamoured right now to deal with that.

They reach the museum three hours before closing time, and Hal thinks, for someone like Jason - who so clearly has an avid interest in reading and learning, that might not be enough. Then again, Bat Education seems pretty extensive, maybe he knows it all already.

They spend a lot of time in the seismology and volcanology exhibit and also end up wandering through one of the neighbouring sections on precious stones before going one floor up to read about prehistoric plants. Jason reads the facts he likes out loud for Hal to react to in the first two, though it turns out he’s already a bit of an expert on plant fossils.

“Spooks’ teachings seem so random but so specific at the same time,” he comments after Jason says something about ferns.

The other man smirks, eyes flicking around to the public around them as a clear signal before shrugging, “Ivy taught me that actually.”

“Ivy?”

“Yeah. She’d humour a lot of my questions. We're not... friends exactly, but she likes me.”

“Likes you?”

“Mm. Used to let me sleep in the Park sometimes when I still lived on the streets, would hang around to chat if she felt like it, didn’t mind me too much as- uh- _R_ either,” he says wincing at the awkward censoring. After a pause he continues, “And we were cell neighbours.”

Hal flinches at that reaching over to squeeze Jason’s shoulder. He forces himself to smile and move on.

“That sounds like you get on pretty well to me then. She nice to any of the others?”

Jason smiles slightly, seemingly thankful for the subject change, “I don’t think so, she’s not big on kids but she’s not really one for attacking them either. I don’t know,”

“Seems to me like you're her favourite. Congrats dude!”

“Poison Ivy’s favourite, how wonderful.” Jason rolls his eyes, moving away and effectively ending the conversation.

They leave after scanning over a few more exhibits, when the announcement comes for all visitors to get out. It’s almost dinner time and Hal’s hungry, so he leads them away and to his favourite burger place. It’s a bit of a walk from the museum, but Hal would rather skip out on all the expensive restaurants in Midtown made exclusively for tourists and people on a regular paycheck who can afford to work a normal job and don’t have to go to space. Jason doesn’t complain.

They get takeout and sit on a wall eating in silence. Hal notices that Jason doesn’t take one of his gloves off as he eats, even as grease gets all over it. It doesn’t take a genius to narrow it down to either a horrible injury of a soulmark. And if it’s the latter, Hal gets it, it takes him a while before he’s comfortable enough to take his shirt off around people. His abs are great and all but he’s so tired of all the worried and sympathetic looks from people about his soulmate. Still, the hand doesn’t seem like an awful place to have one, each to their own comfort level he supposes.

“Uh. Thanks.” Jason says after he’s finished eating, staring up into the sky.

“For what?” Hal asks.

“Showing me around.” Jason replies awkwardly, Hal realises this is his way of saying goodbye. The beginning of the end, he thinks dramatically.

“It was no problem.”

“Yeah, uh…” He trails off, Hal supposes being raised by Batman and then being dead must not be great for your social skills.

“See you around?” Hal offers.

“Uh, yeah. See you.” Jason says, sounding comically unsure of himself.

Hal laughs, bumping Jason’s shoulder and jumping off the ledge, he tosses his junk in the trash can humming and turning around to wave at Jason as he walks backwards down the street.

“Bye!” He yells one last time, before turning the proper way and walking off.

He ignores the fact that his heart leaps slightly when he hears a slightly confused “Bye?” from behind him. Falling headfirst quickly was Kyle’s thing, never his.

After that it’s a while before they see each other again. Hal knows no immediate lifelong bond or friendship was created out of those three small meetings, but that doesn’t stop him from checking the news feed for Red Hood activity when he gets back to Earth. Or listening ever so slightly closer when someone mentions his name in passing on the watchtower or in catch ups. It’s never been anything really interesting, a few Red Hood sightings in Europe but he’s mostly flying under the radar. It’s good, Hal supposes, you don’t want to be on the news a lot if you do undercover work, it ruins the element of surprise, but it doesn't give Hal much to go off.

That is until one pretty miserable October afternoon.

* * *

He’s in his apartment, rain hammering against the window like it has some sort of personal vendetta against him when his bell buzzes, indicating that there’s someone at the downstairs door waiting for him. It’s weird, he hadn’t expected a visit today, and no one sane would go out in this weather, but then again most of the people he knows are slightly crazy, you have to be to fight crime in spandex.

He moves over to answer it, sliding across the floor on his socks. “Hello?”

“Hi.” A voice says, and although the speaker is crackly and he hasn’t heard the voice in a while he’s able to figure out who it is immediately.

“Jason?”

“Yeah.” Jason answers shortly, Hal can hear staticky, laboured breaths through the speaker and his frown deepens, “Fuck, do you- uh- have a first aid kit I could use?”

“Shit, yeah. Is everything alright? Do you need help getting up?”

“No, I’ll- ow, _shit_ \- I’ll be fine. Thanks Hal.” He sure sounded fine alright.

Hal swears lightly, clearing the sofa and rummaging through the bathroom for his scattered medical supplies, all stocked by a concerned John and Carol so it should be fine. A bit messy but all the stuff is there.

And it’s not like he has time to worry because there’s a knocking at his front door.

Hal rushes over and opens it, revealing Jason standing on the other side, soaked through and exhausted.

He’s wearing civilian clothes, which soothes Hal’s worries for a bit, since it’s unlikely that bad stuff happens to you while you’re not in costume, but then his eyes flick down to the alarming red patch spreading on Jason’s jeans and the panic starts up again. Jason is heavily favouring all of his left side, right leg clearly injured under his clothes and right arm hanging limply, he’s wearing the same gloves he was last time, and they’re wet and slightly stained. Hal thinks he can see some bruises blooming under the water drying on Jason’s face as well.

“Sorry.” The other man breathes, voice shaking, “This was the closest place I could think of.”

“It’s fine, come in. Shit. Er- sit.” Hal replies, grimacing. “Don’t you have a safehouse or something?”

“Got blown up.” Jason says shortly, and Hal doesn’t have time to process that, “Uh, on the couch?”

“Yeah, a little blood isn’t going to hurt it, it’s almost definitely seen worse. I’ll get you some towels.”

“Thanks.” Jason sighs, flopping down on the couch and then swearing in pain.

Jason’s digging through the First Aid kit when Hal gets back, and he takes the offered towel gratefully, wiping it over his face and hair, shrugging off his jacket with a wince before dabbing at his arms. The blood patch on Jason’s pants is still growing but for some reason Jason seems to be ignoring it.

Hal notices, when looking at it, that there’s no rips or scuffs or holes in the trousers, nothing to explain how an assumedly serious injury happened to the leg beneath it. Apart from the blood and water, the pants aren’t damaged at all.

Hal is no detective, but it doesn’t take a Batman to figure out that, _for some reason,_ Jason changed into the clothes after he got injured. It’s such an incredibly stupid move especially for someone trained by Bats, but somehow weirdly in character for the little he knows about Jason Todd.

Hal has seen the pants he wears as Red Hood; they could easily pass as civvies. He really doesn’t understand the logic behind this.

Nevertheless, Hal doesn’t comment on it, doesn’t really feel like the right time to, instead he watches as Jason patches up his arm before moving to roll up his pant leg and works on that injury too.

“You can take our jeans off if it’s easier.” Hal says from where he’s hovering.

“Seems a bit forward.” Jason comments lightly, grinning, but after a moment of staring at Hal he shrugs and tugs them off. Folding them and wincing as they squelch slightly with all the absorbed liquid.

There are sloppy bandages already on the leg, clearly a rush job and completely soaked through which Jason peels off with a wince to reveal several long scrapes running down his shin. Hal looks away, for all the stuff he’s dealt with over the past several years he usually tries to avoid dealing with wounds, he’s not squeamish but he just feels awkwardly out of his dept and it always settles as an unpleasant feeling in his stomach.

For some reason, after bandaging up his leg and absently reordering Hal’s first aid kit, Jason makes a move to put his pants on again, beginning to mumble out thanks and apologies and a promise that “I’ll be out of your hair now.”

Hal doesn’t want to think about what kind of issues lead to you seeing walking out into the pouring rain while two of your limbs don’t function properly as a better option compared to just asking to stay and get a change of clothes. He puts a stop to Jason’s attempts pretty quickly, for all the other man’s stubbornness, it doesn’t take much, he was more so planning to leave out of some twisted form of politeness rather than actual comfort.

“Jeez, Jason no. We don’t need you getting pneumonia on top of all that.”

“But-”

“It’s fine. Besides, you said your safe house was blown up. Where are you going to stay?”

“...Fine.”

Hal flashes him a grin and Jason sighs, looking down at the clothes and then back up at Hal. The silence stretches on for a bit before Jason clears his throat.

“Do you have somewhere I could change?”

“Right. Yeah.” Hal replies, cursing in his head, “Bathroom’s down the hall.”

“Thanks.”

After Jason comes back out of the bathroom, wearing pushed up pants that are a little too snug (because Jason hadn’t skipped leg day a day in his life - or death) and a shirt that’s slightly oversized on Hal but not on Jason, Hal forces him back onto the couch. It’s partly because he wants to save the other man from wincing each time, he takes a step and partly because the thumping sound Jason’s leg makes when limping is starting to grate on him a bit.

He’s still wearing the gloves; they’re still damp even if Jason wrung them out in the sink and if Hal was curious about them last time he’s even more so now.

Being on the sofa unfortunately doesn’t stop Jason from ragging loudly on his food choices, a fun mix of insults and actual concern about Hal’s health and diet. Hal decides to focus on the latter comments while making instant ramen for both of them to eat.

Jason eats the ramen with expected reluctance and grumbles, but he eats it, nonetheless, tucked into one of the corners of Hal’s sofa with a blanket wrapped around him. He eats the ramen with a sort of comedic grace, definitely practised, Hal wonders why Jason decides to use said practised grace to eat Ramen of all things, maybe it’s an unconscious habit.

His hair has dried by now, settling into crazy curls that fluff up when he runs his hand through his hair - add that to the little sneer he adopts when grumbling and the blanket he’s cocooned in and he looks adorable.

Listen, Hal knows he’s a bit of a disaster, it’s both the Hal Jordan and Green Lantern brand. He’s not an idiot. Romance-wise, he’s even more of a disaster, he went through a lot of frat boy-esque hook ups through college and a bit while in the air force too. Carol turned into Star Sapphire and after a long time of on again off again shenanigans they called it off. He realised he was bisexual several years later than he thinks he should have and when he told the Lanterns about it, they didn’t even know he thought he was straight.

It’s safe to say he’s had his fair share of issues.

That being said, he doesn’t fall in love, or get crushes, easily. That’s Kyle’s thing. He doesn’t get attached to his hook-ups, hasn’t had as many girlfriends as his cocksure, laid back attitude would have you to believe. It usually takes a while before he’s interested in someone.

But here he is, after only four chance meetings harbouring a crush (god he hates that word, it’s so childish) on former crime lord and slightly angst ridden vigilante, Red Hood.

He has no real clue how it happened. Sure, Jason is handsome, his face is nice to look at and those white streaks in his hair (are they just a style choice? Hal can’t figure it out) are going for him. His thighs could also probably crush a human skull which is unimportant but kind of definitely absolutely hot. 

But Hal isn’t that shallow, despite what people say, personality is also important, people can be hot and irritating. Unfortunately, Jason is nice and funny and passionate too in his own weird way. He’s blunt closed off and cynical, distrusting and on edge - kind of like Spooks. But unlike Wayne it doesn’t seem like he’s doing all of that out of some performative ‘I am the night and the night is better than you. Also, I know where you live. Fear me.” kind of shtick and Hal cannot express how much he appreciates that. Jason is also mischievous, openly musing about ways to cause ruckus and then calling it “thinking out loud”. He’s joked with Hal and spent so much of their “tour around Coast City” ranting about books in an increasingly charming way.

Yeah Hal’s annoyingly and weirdly gone on him.

(A small part of his brain pipes up, mentioning that people tend to fall in love with their soulmates quicker than with other people. Hal shuts that part of his brain down by reminding himself that just because he’s interested in Jason and Jason died one time doesn’t mean he’s Hal’s soulmate. Assuming that he has an autopsy scar just because he died is rude. Hal died and he doesn’t have one, his brain is just looking for what isn’t there.)

Jason stays the night and takes the couch, Hal sees him the next morning with dark circles under his eyes and feels a little guilty about letting the injured person sleep on the lump he calls furniture but Jason waves it off and says it was the rain. 

He slept in the gloves too.

Hal learns some stuff about him in the quiet, almost soft hours that pass, Jason is a tea person but always drinks one coffee in the morning, his hair becomes an unkempt fluffy mess while he sleeps (he looks like he stuck his fingers into a socket and got shocked), and most importantly, his nocturnal habits have translated into him being a night owl and he frankly sucks at existing before 11AM.

He’s over in the kitchen when Hal walks in, staring at the sparse contents of the fridge with squinted eyes and a pout.

“Morning.”

“Hm.” It’s better than nothing.

Hal walks past him to make coffee, watching as he picks up a few eggs and nods, padding over to the stove.

“What are you making?” 

“Hm? Eggs.” Jason yawns, voice deep and sleep heavy. It’s divine. While he clearly doesn’t want Hal to cook, and rightfully so, Hal is worried that whatever Jason is going to attempt is his current state might end up just as bad.

Luckily, it turns out that although his conversation and awareness skills are shit, cooking is a muscle memory thing for Jason and the eggs turn out a little crispy but good. He gives some to Hal as well, before flopping down and eating, movements slow and languid like that of a lazy cat.

He leaves around midday, the weather having cleared up considerably, still wearing the clothes he slept in. The others are bundled into a bag slung around his shoulder with the rest of his stuff.

“Thanks,” Jason says again, softly, as he’s halfway out the door.

“It was no problem.”

“Okay.” Is his only reply, before the door shuts and Jason walks away.

Two days later he wakes up to the clothes washed and folded sitting on his table. A note flutters out of the pants pocket that reads.

_Burner Phone No. Just In Case :)_

* * *

Hal gets a call from the Guardians and is whisked off away to fight space crime the next day and phones don’t work in space so it takes him a good month to actually contact Jason. He hopes the man hasn’t ditched this burner for another, he seems like the kind of guy to cycle through them quickly in paranoia. Or maybe he doesn’t. Hal doesn’t know the average salary for ex crime lords.

He spends dinner (takeout pizza) agonizing over how to start the conversation, what to say. On one hand, Hal hasn’t texted him for a month, if Jason has any expectations, they’re very low so it doesn’t matter what Hal says. But on the other hand, Hal wants to set a decent impression, never mind that Jason literally bled on his couch last time they saw each other.

He’s channelling all of his social awareness skills into this and it’s exhausting.

He opens his phone again, staring at the blank chat and the ‘ _hey :P’_ he had typed out before foolishly overthinking and then getting hungry.

Why couldn’t Jason text first? He had a whole month too. Hal can’t believe he’s getting left with the hard part.

He sighs, stares at his phone again, shuts it off, sighs, opens it back up to the chat and sighs again before closing his eyes.

He hits the send button and opens them immediately, staring as the text marks itself delivered.

That felt weirdly anticlimactic. He doesn’t know what he was expecting but either way this was anticlimactic. He switches his phone off and on again, there’s no reply. That makes sense, Hal only sent the text a few seconds ago, he needs to give Jason time to reply. Also, it’s night, Jason works at night, he’s probably busy.

Hal throws his phone to the other side of the sofa and stares at the TV.

His phone buzzes half an hour later, startling Hal off the couch as he breaks away from the nature documentary, he accidentally managed to get invested in. 

He uses a construct hand to grab his phone as he hauls himself up, righting the bowl beside him and clutching his phone like the cookie cutter protagonist of a shitty teen movie when they think some hot boy texted them (which yeah, that last part is correct but Hal doesn’t want to begin comparing himself to leading characters in chick flicks or he’ll end up on a winding path).

 _‘Jason Todd: Hey :).’_ The notification reads which is painfully simple but Hal’s kind of distracted by the fact that _the Red Hood uses smileys._

Hal wastes no time replying.

_H: how r you?_

The nature documentary is long forgotten in the background as Hal sits and waits for Jason to reply.

_J: Good. Work has been slow lately, in Washington rn._

_J: How was space?_

_H: cold, big, full of smurfs :(._

_J: Smurfs?_

_H: the guardians._

_J: Ah._

_H: what are you doing in Washington?_

_J: Work :)._

Fair enough, even if Jason was willing to share the details, an easily accessible text conversation might not be the best option. Although they did talk about space and mention his location, who knows.

_H: Dc or state?_

_J: State. Why?_

_H: was wondering if you would wanna come down to coast while ur still this side of america?_

There are a few nerve wracking seconds when Hal just sits and waits watching the lack of activity. Maybe it’s too forward? This is the first time they’ve texted and Jason is definitely one to be cautious. Maybe he thought Coast City sucked. It doesn’t but maybe Gotham had some weird lasting effect on his brain that made him extremely against any city that didn’t have gargoyles on every street. Batman was like that; it might be a Gotham or Bat thing.

His worries are eased when his phone pings though.

_J: Sure_

_J: We didn’t get to see the library._

* * *

They don’t end up visiting the library. Jason comes down two days after they first start texting and even though it never properly gets wintery in Coast, it sure does get cold and miserable at times. Unfortunately, they organise to meet on a day that turns out to be the start of a rainstorm, so any plans to go out are ruined.

Jason shows up at his flat building thankfully less soaked and bloody than last time (though that’s not saying much) holding a plastic bag and grinning as the raindrops run down his face. Once he’s accepted Hal’s slightly forced offering of dry clothes (keeping his gloves on as usual) he unloads his plastic bag of vegetables and other food while begins ranting about proper eating.

And thus, Hal gets his whirlwind of a cooking lesson. He barely realises what's happening for the first few minutes as Jason mutters and rummages around his kitchen, Hal can’t hear what he’s saying but most of it sounds like a different language. 

“Wait, you’re teaching me to cook?” Jason looks at him like he’s stupid.

“It’s one meal. You live off pot noodles and microwave meals, I don’t need to explain to you why that’s bad.”

Hal can only grin though, because in some weird way, this shows that Jason cares about him and what he eats. It’s kind of sweet.

Jason isn’t a bad teacher at all, he’s a pretty good one in fact. Sure, he can be blunt and maybe a bit harsh at times, but he’s also patient and mostly non-judgemental. He demonstrates stuff like cutting an onion gently, all the while berating Hal for almost potentially cutting his fingers off.

In the end they have a finished meal, it’s not 5-star, and definitely under seasoned but it’s edible and unburned and Hal made it without endangering human life in the process so he’s pretty proud. Jason seems pretty happy as he eats, tucked into the same corner of the couch as last time, legs crossed and a small, crooked smile on his face.

Jason leaves later, borrowed umbrella and hoodie as he waves Hal off and trudges into the dark and rain.

They’re both on his table two days later.

They text a lot when Hal’s on Earth, Hal will send Jason random stupid texts when he’s bored, talking about something funny Tom said or some weird alley cat that hissed at him. He’ll send photos too, of said alley cat and his minimal, still slightly disastrous attempts at cooking. 

Jason starts off by sending short replies, a thumbs up or smiley face or tips on how to not set rice on fire, Hal’s well aware that he’s carrying the conversation, but Jason hasn’t blocked him or told him to shut up so he’s going to continue. 

Eventually, slowly Jason begins to send random updates back, pictures of skylines from wherever he is, short goings on. He texts a lot like someone who’s trying to write an Instagram caption and isn’t very good at it, but it amuses Hal so he doesn’t point it out.

They meet up during this time, finally get to see the library when the weather clears up and after they’re done with that Hal forces Jason to go get ice cream at the shorefront with him, despite it being the middle of January. Jason seems more exhausted, too tired to be as expressive as usual and there’s a new scar Hal can see on his arm, but he does hug Hal when the part ways, so Hal isn’t really sure what to think.

Jason begins to text him when he’s off in space too, using their chat as some sort of light personal diary, Hal doesn’t mind, quite the opposite actually it’s a weirdly nice feeling knowing that someone has been actively contacting you while you’re away and Jason’s texts are nothing if not endearing. They range from

_J: [image attached] tiny dog_

to

_J: Still got soot from the explosion on me :(._

It begins a routine of them meeting up at least once every time Hal is on Earth. Hal forces Jason to explain the context for some of his messages, they lament about the hardships of being a superhero and vigilante and either eat at some diner they find or Jason takes over Hal's kitchen and cooks.

It’s nice, is the best way Hal can really put it, after getting through the first few walls Jason is easy to get along with, snarky and quick witted but never overly antagonistic, Hal isn’t someone he has personal drama with. For all his baggage, he feels like some weird breath of fresh air in Hal’s life.

They’re not best friends or anything, Hal’s is Barry or Ollie and Jason’s is Roy and there’s still a small usually undetectable level of mistrust between them, shown in the way Jason keeps his gloves on constantly but most of the time Hal can forget about it easily and enjoy the time he’s spending with Jason.

_“You seem happier.” John mentions to him one night in Warriors, eyes trained on Guy’s retreating figure as he swirls his drink._

_“Yeah?” Hal raises his eyebrow._

_“Yeah.” John hums. “Any reason why?”_

_“Uh- I. Uh.” He doesn’t feel particularly comfortable explaining his new friendship-slash-crush on renowned antihero the Red Hood to John quite yet. Sure, he might not judge but he’ll have questions Hal doesn’t want to answer while slightly tipsy in a bar._

_“It’s fine, Hal. I’m just curious.” It’s impossible not to see the amusement in his eyes._

_Kyle arrives then, and Hal sees John’s eyes flick over to where Guy is talking to Kilowog and Arisia again before he rubs at his shoulder and turns back to smile at him again._

_“I’m glad you’re happy Hal.”_

_“Thanks.”_

The next time they arrange to hang out Hal is technically injured. And by that he means he’s on Earth for injured leave but he doesn’t feel too bad. Most of the time. He hasn’t told Jason about the quilt of bruises and bandages on his torso and arm because he wants to go out and do something and the pain is usually manageable.

Unfortunately for Hal, for all the ties Jason tries to cut now, he was still raised by the Bat and is therefore annoyingly perceptive. He takes one look at Hal when he opens the door and goes “Nope!” before moving gently past him and taking his shoes off.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were injured Hal, Christ.” He mutters.

“It’s not that bad.”

“Your posture is completely stiff because of pain, I’m not an idiot.” Jason replies, sounding more than a little miffed. “Go sit down.”

Hal sighs and complies, because yeah, being stubborn is one of his main character traits, but he can tell when he’s on the losing side of an argument. Besides, Jason is unfortunately right, he’s losing a lot of energy from staying standing. 

Jason forgoes the TV instead grabbing Hal’s laptop.

“What’s your password?”

“Can’t you just hack it?”

“Yeah but that would be rude. Password?”

“Fishstick84. Capital F.” Hal sees the corner of Jason’s mouth flick up slightly as he types it in.

Hal can’t remember if he left anything weird open in the tabs and if Jason sees anything he doesn’t comment, he just logs into Roy’s Netflix account, gives the laptop to Hal and walks over to the kitchen.

He comes back twenty minutes later holding soup with a small bit of tomato smeared above his eyebrow.

“Thanks.”

“Hm.” Jason replies, settling down next to him.

The laptop is small, the screen is hard to see so no one can blame Hal for shuffling closer to the middle. Jason leans in too and they must be continuing the pattern because when Hal zones back out again he’s practically leaning on Jason’s arm. The other man doesn’t mind, or he hasn’t noticed as he stares at the laptop, a resting small frown on his face, lower lip jutting out. He blinks (damn his eyelashes are long) and jostles them slightly, arm hitting Hal’s waist and making him cry out in pain.

Jason turns his head sharply, facing Hal with his brows furrowed (their faces are so close Hal can see the paler freckles that faded during winter).

“Are you alright?” He sounds genuinely worried as high eyes flick over Hal’s face. He really hopes it’s dark enough to hide the blush that’s probably there.

“Fine, you hit a bruise by accident.” He replies after a pause that’s definitely a few seconds too long.

“Oh. Sorry.” Jason replies, drawing away and Hal wants to scream.

“It’s fine, don’t worry.” Hal tries to amend quickly, bumping their arms together. Jason, it seems, isn't convinced.

“How’d you get hurt?” Jason asks, staring down where he assumes the injuries might be.

“Space fight, the other guys got a couple hits in.” He shrugs, settling back to face the screen.

“Seems like it,” Is Jason’s answer, quiet, unsure.

“Mhm, now c’mon I want to keep watching,” He replies, tugging Jason so they’re sitting close together again, his hand resting on Jason’s arm as they watch.

Jason leaves early that night, all half smiles and reminders of leftovers and promises to text. The lights in the apartment are dim, casting a shadow over his eyes making him look smaller than he is as he curls in on himself on Hal’s sofa. He doesn’t meet Hal’s eyes, not that he often does, but noticeable tonight as he curls his right arm in front of him and stares straight ahead. He doesn’t stop Hal from leaning against him though, which is nice but it doesn’t help him figure out what’s going on.

Hal pulls him into a hug when he leaves, resting his head next to Jason’s ear. Jason tenses up for a bit but after a few, awkward seconds he slowly, tentatively hugs back. It’s gentle, clearly careful of Hal’s injuries, but somehow still firm as he tucks his head tentatively into Hal’s shoulder.

There’s a small grin on Jason’s face when they break apart, which stays there until he closes the door behind him, and while it might be an exaggeration to say he thought about that expression for the rest of the night, it was certainly not an exaggeration by much.

* * *

Hal doesn’t get back to Earth for four months after that, some diplomatic things going horribly, horribly over schedule to blame. The Guardians, for all their many faults grant him leave as soon as he gets back to Oa, although Hal doubts it’s less out of the good of their hearts and more the fact that Hal looks like death.

He gets home, stumbles through his window and promptly passes out, all the pent up exhaustion rushing into him at once. After sleeping like the dead for 28 hours he gets up, takes a bath, pointedly ignoring that it’s 2AM before settling back in his bed again and reading through his phone.

He has one from Barry, checking in and asking to hang out, a couple from Carol, who uses his number to write herself reminders, a few other assorted ones from Tom, Dinah and Ollie and 30 from Jason. Which isn't a big number, he knows some people who could send 30 texts in 5 minutes but for Jason, that’s a lot.

He leaves Jason’s until last, scrolling through them slowly until he reaches the last text he sent. It’s a selfie, part of Jason's face taking up the bottom right corner of the screen as he looks at the camera blankly, holding up a peace sign as he sits in front of... is that Coast City Harbour?

He checks when Jason sent the photo and, huh. Jason’s actually in Coast when Hal arrived home this time, what are the odds.

_H: u in coast??_

He texts, before clicking away to check something else. Jason replies 5 minutes later.

_J: Y_

_J: Yeah. Have a nice nap? :)_

Of course, he’d know when Hal arrived, doesn’t have to make fun of it though.

_H: rude. Maybe i just didn’t text you_

_J: :(_

It is still so amusing to him that the Red Hood uses smileys, he gets this mental image of Jason standing stone faced on the top of a skyscraper with the Hood on and wind blowing around him as he sends them.

They text for a bit longer after that, short catch up on what they’ve been doing, Jason asking about how Hal’s injury healed and Hal saying he can drop by anytime apart from Tuesday because Barry’s coming round on Tuesday before Jason has to leave and Hal pushes himself out to bad to make a late night/early morning snack.

Waking up on his sofa next afternoon, he hears a tapping noise coming from behind him. He stands up, stretching and wincing as his neck before turning around.

He is not prepared for the sight of Jason in his full Red Hood gear minus the helmet somehow hanging next to his fourth floor apartment tapping insistently on the window. 

This isn’t what he meant when he said stop by any time.

He opens the window though, steps aside as Jason crawls in, releasing the grapple hook he was holding onto as he shakes his windswept hair around. 

“Hey Hal, how are you, wanna go bust some criminals?” He grins and there’s a domino mask covering his eyes but Hal knows that that little mischievous spark is shining brightly in them.

For a Robin, sometimes he can be so endearingly stupid. Hal loves him.

_Wait._

_Holy shit._

_Holy fucking shit._

His hand travels up to grip the hem of his shirt as he tunes back into what Jason is saying.

“-ere you really asleep? It’s 4pm dude.”

“Criminals?” He manages to say, head spinning. Jason gives him a weird look.

“Yeah, low level gang, involved in some shady shit here in Coast. Thought you might want to help out. You alright?” His voice softens at the end, left arm twitching slightly.

“Yeah. Tired. I’ll help out, give me a minute.” He replies, giving him a strained smile before running to the bathroom.

“Don’t take too long,” Jason replies and Hal can hear his combat boots trudge through Hal’s living room into the kitchen.

He rips his shirt off staring at the mirror, gripping the sink as his mind spirals.

_Holy shit._

Jason is his soulmate. Jason said the words on his chest. Hal is in love with Jason.

Holy fuck Hal is in love with the Red Hood. The Red Hood is his fucking soulmate.

Oh, fucking god. His brain was right.

He focuses on his figure in the mirror eyes moving down to the mark as something else dawns in his already muddled mind.

Jason has an autopsy scar. And in some weird way that hurts, because on top of everything, on top of dying, he has a constant reminder of it on his skin and Jason of all people, doesn’t deserve that.

Hal splashes water on his face and tugs his shirt over his head again, looking at himself in the mirror before proceeding to make the weakest finger guns possible walking out of the bathroom. 

He immediately loses composure when he sees Jason sniffing at his fruit, he can feel his face slipping into a sappy little smile as he watches Jason make an unattractive face at the banana and put it down. This is the man the universe has destined him to be with, this is the man he has recently realised he’s in love with. Somehow under all the confused screaming, he can’t find it in himself to complain.

He knows he should decline when Jason looks up and cocks his head as invitation to come along, he should sit and maybe work through the feelings he has and the implications that come with them but Jason looks weirdly hopeful, and he doesn’t want to decline.

Jason drags Hal to his safehouse to explain the plan with diagrams and such first, there are a total of two pieces of clothing on the floor and Jason still apologises for the mess saying he had “a thing” before picking up Hal and couldn’t tidy. Hal uses his ring to pick the stuck off the floor and fold it, watching as Jason’s mouth curves into a surprised smile.

He’s distracted when Jason lays out the plan, leaning on the table and talking as Hal daydreams slightly, lost in thought as he zones in every so often to get a general understanding of their attack plan.

He’s out of focus in the fight too, noticeably so to him, as his constructs are slightly weaker. Batman’s dislike of the Lanterns means Jason doesn’t know much about the Corps, the only good thing to come out of that situation, but the other Lanterns would be raising their eyebrows and questioning Hal by now.

Somehow, not by Hal’s doing in any way, the mission goes well, the gang is well and truly disbanded and Jason has the evidence he needs. 

Hal’s brain is still whirring, still trying to process as he lands watching Jason wipe the blood from his jacket. He’s too preoccupied with the whole situation to be concerned over why he finds that hot.

“Are you good?” Jason asks looking up, it’s hard to tell up the question is a general statement or actual concern with the helmet in the way.

“Yeah,” He says, wincing at exhausted his voice sounds. “Fuck, guess I’m just more tired than I thought.” There’s an attempted smile, but it would be more accurate to call it a grimace. “I should head home.”

Jason takes off his helmet, mouth twisted in sympathy, “Christ, you shouldn’t have come along if you were feeling like shit. Sorry. Do you need any help getting home?”

“I’ll be fine, let me know how the case goes.”

“Sure. Get some rest GL, people worry.” Hal is pretty good at Jason speak, this is a roundabout way of saying he’s worried and maybe a little guilty. There’s not much he can do about it now without his thoughts spiralling further so he just nods and flies off.

Flies away from his soulmate.

Part of him wants to go back and explain everything, show Jason his mark and see his reaction, it certainly what those who see him as nothing more than some impulsive flyboy with an alien ring would expect him to do.

But the thing is, Jason is skittish, somehow Hal has earned his trust and they interact comfortably but that trust can turn fragile quickly. Jason learnt repression from the best, he died at 15, his emotional growth was abruptly cut short and he’s still catching up now. If Hal tells him he’ll run away and disappear, come back removed and impersonal and that’s the last thing that Hal wants.

He has to wait for Jason to figure it out or fall in love with him whichever comes first. Because Hal knows Jason doesn’t already know, or else he would have let some kind of sign slip, mentioning it or doing a disappearing act or would have started becoming really awkward, slowing down contact and leaving Hal confused. It’s better if Jason freaks out and leaves on his own devices because Hal is able to fix that without knowing him pushing the other man is what caused it.

He thinks to those old, battered gloves Jason wears, the one that presumably hides his soulmark. The soulmark that hopefully ties him to Hal, is wrapped around his finger like a ring? Or curled up across his hand in the shape of that old scar Hal had there that has long faded.

It’s a confusing, slightly stressful situation, soulmates often are. He doesn’t really have any one to complain to about it though, because there is no way he’d be able to keep Jason’s identity private in his rants and most Earth abiding heroes have a lukewarm or wary opinion of him.

The Lanterns don’t really mind Jason, he hasn’t done much to them but John refuses to talk about soulmates, Guy claims he doesn’t need a bullet wound shaped mark on his shoulder to tell him who to love and Kyle and Jason kind of know each other so it would be weird and awkward. 

He’s kind of stuck suffering alone on this one. 

But, at the end of the day, between all the stress of the situation, he’s kind of looking forward to having Jason as his soulmate, it’s an outcome he thought about a little at the start, when they had only just gotten to know each other and Hal was beginning to form a crush on the guy, Jason was hot, funny and charming in his own weird way and his brain was allowed to daydream. And now that he knows Jason pretty well, now that they hang out regularly it seems like even more of a good match.

He’s oddly relieved his soulmate is Jason.

He just hopes Jason feels the same.

* * *

The waiting game gets boring pretty quickly. Jason texts him checking up the next day and Hal has to fight off the urge to come clean about everything once again.

And then Jason is gone, following up some other lead in Canada and Hal sleeps and goes back into Space where he sometimes feels John stare at the back of his head and sees Guy frown at his chest, only to look down and find that he’s been rubbing his collar bone absently again.

He doesn’t know either hasn’t burst out and said anything yet, they’re probably gossiping about it behind his back, but Hal doesn’t mind, it’s not like he hasn’t done the same.

The more he focuses on Jason, the more he finds himself missing the man, thoughts straying off path towards all ideas of him more often than not. It doesn’t affect his performance mostly, which he’s grateful for. He usually notices himself thinking of the other man when he hasn’t got much on his mind and fights take up all his brain space while they’re going on.

Jason shows up in a whirlwind and drags Hal to some poetry performance in Northgate Park, it’s not Hal’s type of thing at all but Jason buys him hamburgers afterwards and that mixed with the happy/content look he wears that day is worth it. There are a couple poems and poets he rants on about grinning as he mixes normal rambling (or infodumping as Guy calls it) with quotes from poems that he just remembers for some reason.

He also spends a good five minutes making sure that Hal is healed from his injury a few weeks ago, latching onto his arm with a gentleness that would be surprising if Hal didn’t know him as well as he did.

And then Jason is thanking him softly under the tree outside Hal’s apartment building, hand stuffed in his pockets as night draws near. He smiles and it’s a soft, painfully private thing, so unlike any of the crazed grins and cheeky smiles he’s flashed Hal’s way, before he asks when Hal will be home next, visibly rearranging his schedule in his head when Hal replies.

A hug and shoulder bump later he’s gone and Hal is left realising he’s well and truly fucked.

He doesn’t know how much longer he can keep this to himself.

* * *

It’s July the next time they see each other, about a month after the poetry outing and two and a half since Hal’s Big Realisation. It’s hot, the seasons creeping closer to the insufferable Coast City August heat, it’s the kind of weather to go to the beach in. But Jason isn’t one for swimming, and he’d never take off those gloves or his shirt, autopsy scars aren’t usually found on living people. And Hal isn’t up for getting stares from strangers about his soulmark and a possible connection of evidence from Jason if he goes shirtless. Too many risks, he’ll face being sweaty in his stuffy high up apartment.

Jason is arriving in a bit, he sent Hal a picture of a blurred orchard from his bike to announce that he was on his way, which is slightly concerning, but Hal can chew him out when he gets here, so Jason doesn’t reply while still driving. 

They don’t have anything planned, there’s nothing on in town that interests them so unless Jason arrives with one of his weird impulsive ideas they’ll probably just go out and get food then hang around. Things have been hectic lately, in space and with the Justice League so Hal’s looking forward to doing something relaxed that won’t make him feel like he’s wasting time.

It’s about 2PM when he hears Jason pull up outside on his bike and walk up to the building. He knocks on the door a minute later, probably having taken the steps two by two. 

Hal opens the door, listening to Jason’s light breathing as he steps back and lets the other man walk past. His hair is in its ever present state of windswept unruliness, curling around the nape of his neck. His eyes are green and bright, they always look so much more natural when he’s happy, like the colour isn’t a lasting effect from the Lazarus Pit but rather his normal eye colour. He’s got a small open mouthed grin on his face and he turns around to greet Hal, hands on his hips.

The only thing taking away from the whole image is the bandage on Jason’s jaws, along with those on his arms and the splint on his fingers. He can see bits of bruising as well, from where Jason’s T-Shirt rides up and the inside of his arm. 

It’s not unusual for Jason to be sporting some sort of injury, he leads a dangerous life especially without the perks of invulnerability or accelerated healing that so many heroes have. And Hal’s seen his fighting style, he’s no expert but Jason fights directly, he runs towards bullets and knives rather than dodging - that ends up with you getting more than your fair share of cuts and scrapes.

But even for him, this seems like a lot.

“What happened?” Hal asks, still standing next to the open door.

Jason shrugs. “Forgot fire could hurt,” he says, pointing to the bandage on his jaw, “And this is from an assassin attack.”

“Fuck.” Hal says and Jason smiles, a touch bitterly before waltzing into his kitchen to begin the inevitable spiel of insults that always come about it.

After Jason is done insulting the wreck that is Hal’s kitchen, he begins to make bread. Apparently, the string of motels he’s been staying at lately haven’t had good cooking area’s for him to use and it’s been killing him slowly inside. Hal leads the conversation for the most part, working through all the usual pleasantries as he stands and watches. ‘How are you?’, ‘done anything interesting lately?’ and ‘favourite near death experience since I saw you last?’ are traded quietly in the cooling down air of the late afternoon. Time switching between speeding past and crawling slowly like a metronome.

It’s lazy. Lazy and comfortable in the way that reminds Hal of stretching limbs stiff and heavy with exhaustion. He’s tired, achingly so and the bruising under Jason’s eyes indicates that he is too, but with Jason around it feels almost pleasant. He feels content.

That sort of pleasant lethargy settles as Hal shuffles to switch on the TV and flicks through the channels. He feels his eyes droop slightly as Jason settles beside him, bread in the oven, watching with an out of place wariness as the screen changes.

Hal only snaps out of his half asleep state at the pained yell Jason gives when Hal kicks him accidentally. Suddenly he’s awake and shooting up and Jason scowls and rubs his side gingerly.

“Fuck! Sorry. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, don’t worry.” Jason mutters, still pouting slightly, hand gently covering his hip.

Hal watches as Jason lifts up his shirt to check, clearly careful not to show off the autopsy scar and Hal catches sight of the slightly bloody bandages wrapped round the other man’s waist.

“What’s that from?” He hears himself saying.

“Assassin attack again. I was wearing old armour, there was a weak spot.” Jason sighs, irritation present in his voice, Hal can’t decipher if it’s aimed at the assassin’s for injuring him or himself for getting injured.

“You could have told me; I would have been more careful.”

“I said it’s fine, Hal. Doesn’t hurt much.”

“Yeah but I’d rather not hurt you at all.” Hal replies, slightly offhandedly as he grabs for the remote, it’s true and not automatically incriminating so he doesn’t think much of it.

Jason huffs gently, a small disbelieving sound, but it lasts less than a second before he freezes up. His hand flies up to his chest, curling in as his mouth shuts closed and his eyes widen.

There’s an unsettlingly unfamiliar look in his eyes, in no way a good one. If Hal had to guess he’d say Jason looked _scared,_ and to see someone like Jason, who was not unflappable but definitely prepared, look like that…

It unnerves Hal, to say the least.

“Jaso-”

“I have to go.” Jason blurts, standing up suddenly, jerkily. “Case thing. Sorry.”

“Wait! Ja-” The door slams shut; Hal doesn’t even think Jason put his shoes on before leaving. And his bag is still hanging over Hal’s chair.

_What was that? What just happened?_

In the several months (almost a year holy shit) Hal has known Jason, he’s never done something like this. He’s frozen up momentarily, had his mood ruined by some small trigger or incident, but he’s never panicked and left.

What did Hal do to make him react like that? Was it the comment? Sure it was a little more touchy feely than normal, but Hal needs to be able to express himself, even if in small pockets and it’s not like Jason is allergic to emotion, a simple declaration shouldn’t be enough to make him curl in on himself, to hide his ha-

Oh.

_Oh no._

_He realised._

And on one hand that’s brilliant, if he had said Jason’s words that meant he was definitively Jason’s soulmate, and that Jason was in love with him. That’s wonderful.

But on the other hand, after realising, Jason’s first instinct was to panic and run to get away from him and that is wholly not good.

Hal has been sitting here, waiting and hiding in a way that feels like it hurts sometimes to avoid an overly bad reaction and somehow all he was dreading happened anyway. He wants to kick himself.

There some stupid horror at the situation mixed with guilt and strangely enough, relief, because hopefully, if he’s interpreting this right, it means that Jason is his soulmate and Jason, the slightly crazy but achingly endearing charming man he’s been in love with for almost two months now, loves him back. And that means Jason cares about him, and it means he has a chance to fix this.

He should go fix this.

He really needs to go fix this.

* * *

Finding Jason isn’t too hard, the perks of having a piece of alien tech on his finger. It takes a little longer than he’d like, Jason isn’t another ring slinger, there’s no ring to ring connection to give Hal a location, but he and Jason have hung out often for the ring to pick up identifiable traits. It’s a bit creepy, but undeniably useful.

He finds Jason in some decent looking Motel, a comfortably removed distance from Coast. His bike is parked outside and Hal can see what he hopes is Jason’s silhouette in the dimly lit room at the far end.

He dematerializes his suit, landing and knocking the door.

Jason opens if after a bit, slowly, cautiously. He doesn’t look great. His eyes are slightly red rimmed, Hal isn’t sure if it’s from crying or rubbing at them. They’re filled with exhausted wariness, reflected in his posture which is swamped somehow by the baggy clothes Jason is wearing.

His hair is all over the place, more so than usual, it’s not hard to imagine him running his hands through it absently while pacing. Jason seems like a pacer.

“Hey. I came to give you your-” he belatedly realises that he left Jason’s bag at home in the rush, Jason stares at him expression unchanged, slouching slightly, “-bag. Uh, never mind. I came to check if you were alright as well.”

Jason regards him, it hurts to see the expression switch to amused, fond before to borderline distrust. The top right of his lip curls up slightly and he scrunches his eyes slightly.

“I’m fine.” He says, voice quiet and echoing, “I told you, it was a case thing - sorry.”

He shakes his head, hair dully reflecting the light of the sun setting before he moves to close the door.

“Wait, no!” Hal says sticking his hand out, Jason freezes it’s not welcoming but it gives him opening to speak so he doesn’t. “I know, this is about the soulmate thing, right? I know. Don’t shut me out. Please.”

“You know.” Jason says flatly. Hal feels like rain should start pouring and soaking him now, just to add the scene. “Come in.” The other man sighs.

Hal tries to smile and steps into the dimly lit room, sparse and ugly with wallpaper that was probably in style in the 70’s. There’s a single bag of luggage tucked into one corner and the bed is completely made, save for a dip where Jason had clearly been sitting.

“You knew.” Some unknown emotion laces Jason’s voice as he closes the door. “How long?”

“A bit more than a month.” Hal replies, Jason’s lips thin.

“Why didn’t you tell me Hal?” And now Hal feels like a bit more of an asshole.

“I didn’t want you to freak out and leave.”

“I wouldn’t ha-” Hal fixes him with a disbelieving stare, “I’m not that bad.”

“Maybe I didn’t feel like testing that.” 

Jason sighs again, visibly flopping slightly. “Have I...?”

“Yeah,” Hal smiles softly, “You wanna see the mark?”

Jason nods mutely, eyes flicking jerkily over Hal’s body, lingering whenever they land on his face. Hal is a bit worried to show it to Jason, honestly. On one hand he’s been waiting for this moment most of his life but he doesn’t know how Jason will react to the reminder of his death and how obviously it’s incorporated into his soulmate’s soulmark.

He shrugs his jacket off, folding it in half and putting it on the bed before tugging off his shirt. He feels almost uncomfortably exposed in this tiny motel with one other person. There’s just an extra weight behind it that makes this significant.

“Oh.” Jason breathes, stumbling forward. He stops inches away, hesitant. “Sorry.”

“What for?” Hal’s voice is barely above a whisper.

Jason winces slightly, hand reaching up to his collarbone. “The shape. It’s-”

“Fine.” Hal assures. Watching Jason’s green eyes focus on his chest, swirling with a mix of emotion. “We match.”

“I guess.” The other man is still keeping an awkward distance.

“You can touch it. If you want.”

Jason reaches one hand, carefully. It’s cold against Hal’s skin, fingertips resting on his sternum as he feels Jason falter for a second before splaying his whole palm on Hal’s chest. He shuffles forward, transfixed and his thumb travels up the line to Hal’s collarbone. His face is slightly scrunched, focussed on his fingers brushing over Hal. He looks adorable, expression crossed between hesitance and disbelief.

His other hand moves forward as well, also cold when it rests on where the words cut off, just below his stomach.

Jason snorts when he reads the words, sound filling the almost painfully silent room as he mouths the phrase _‘bust some criminals’_ incredulously. He frowns and his head snaps up Hal then.

“So, you weren’t tired that day after all. It was just… this.” Jason says, cocking his head.

Hal doesn’t reply though. Jason’s hands are lingering on him, calluses brushing roughly as he stands less than two inches from Hal, looking him in the eye and making sincere comments and it’s hard for him to concentrate.

This is the moment it really settles in that he loves this man, in all his beautiful, awkward, avoidant glory. Jason staring down at something that connects the two of them so personally with wonder in his eyes and something almost described as a grin on his face is a sight to behold and Hal yearns to see it more often.

There’s a certain softness in the curve of Jason’s mouth as he murmurs softly and it’s so simple but it makes Hal stupidly ache for something more. Something more with Jason.

He can feel Jason’s soft breaths on his face, for fucks sake - can see the rise and fall of the other man’s chest easily, and he _wants._

“Hal?” He hears Jason say, from a distance too close and still not close enough. His hands are still on Hal’s chest.

Jason begins to draw away, shrinking back into himself and Hal stumbles forwards, whispering “No!” before stopping short, barely in inch between their faces as he stares into the shocked green of Jason’s eyes. 

“Ha-”

“Can I?” He breathes, almost desperate. “Can I kiss you?”

And Jason lets out a slow, agonising breath before he smiles and goes “Yeah.”

It’s tentative, nothing like the dramatic surging kiss Hal had always expected to have with his soulmate. It’s slow and careful and more than a little uncertain but at the same time Hal’s heart feels as though it might burst and adrenaline rushes through his body.

He can feel Jason’s eyelashes flutter as he angles himself, hands sliding to grip Hal’s shoulder and waist roughly, making Hal’s stomach flip in the best possible way. Jason sighs against him, his lips are rough, uneven and bitten in a way that feels fitting but they move gently even as Jason moves to deepen the kiss.

Hal loves it. Hal loves it and he loves him and his heart is singing with joy and disbelief because here he is, kissing his amazing, brilliant soulmate and it’s even more perfect than he expected it to be.

He only pulls away when he feels Jason’s hand shift to the back of his neck, glove scratching against the nape. He’s breathless and probably smiling slightly crazily but Jason’s eyes, those wonderful burning green eyes, soften with fondness and a bit of nervousness as Hal huffs and leans forward, kissing the tip of his nose, once, twice before reaching to grab Jason’s hand, thumb resting on the glove.

“It’s your soulmark right?”

“Yeah.” Jason hums, taking his hand out of Hal’s and removing the glove, “Here.”

It’s pretty enough without context, a black circle over his middle knuckle, with half a simple sun underneath it. The words, _‘yeah but I’d rather not hurt you at all’,_ are written in small, neat block capitals making up the semi-circle, rays being short black lines stark against the untanned skin of Jason’s hand. 

It’s sweet, minimalistically pretty without background information.

“Sorry.” Jason says again as Hal’s thumbs brush over it.

“Why?”

“It’s how you died, right? Bad memories and all that.”

Hal lifts Jason’s hand and kisses it, marvelling at how red tints the other man’s cheeks, “In a way it’s nice that there’s finally something good I can link to it.”

“I suppose.” There’s a small bit of disbelief lacing his tone.

“When did you figure it out?”

“When you said the words, I had my suspicions but I wasn’t sure.”

“Really? It seems kinda obvious.”

“You’d think.” Bemusement creeps into his tone, “I thought it was Roy for a while, maybe even Kori, which would have been awkward. I even dated a guy named Sunny because of it.”

Hal snorts, leaning forward to kiss Jason again. Jason reciprocates easily, humming softly as Hal moves his hand up to cup Jason’s face.

“I’m glad it was you.” Is whispered against Hal’s mouth, tone vulnerable.

“I am too.” Hal mumbles back, softly in the light of the setting sun.

* * *

Slowly but surely, Jason starts to move into Hal’s apartment. He doesn’t notice it at first, doesn’t even think Jason realises, but the bag he left never gets picked up and suddenly there’s a pair of combat boots next to the door and large hoodies and books that definitely weren’t his lying around. Jason begins wearing his clothes and the fridge is usually stocked with properly healthy food.

It seems like such a quick step to make, especially when you count all the issues between them but it feels right. Jason travels and Hal is in Space, the only time it's really theirs are those periods when Hal receives breaks from duty and they spend days holed up, existing in each others presence when they can.

Hal tells Barry, who comes around eventually, Iris and Jason get on swimmingly, Tom and Carol congratulate and tease him in their own ways. And the Lanterns like Jason too, once they figure it out. Jason tells Roy, who gives them both shovel talks and Kori who hugs him like an old friend when she finds out. He tells his scary assassin mom and Kid Devil and in their own ways they seem happy for them.

And Hal is happy too, he’s happy when he comes back from space to see Jason sitting in the dark on their bed, working on a case and when they spend a day in Coast or LA or whatever city Hal flies them to. He’s happy when they end up lounging around on the sofa for a day, Hal’s fingers in Jason’s hair as they (mostly Jason) solve TV mysteries before the characters and when Jason kisses him over the bowls of food they’re balancing on their legs.

They’re happy in a way that Hal thinks he might never get used to, but also in a way that he can’t imagine living without.

He realises it one day, when the clouds overhead are grey and the light is soft and a year has gone by, curled up next to Jason and tugging on the oversized Pink Floyd shirt his boyfriend is wearing. 

He kisses Jason, diverting his boyfriend’s attention away from the computer to reciprocate.

“Hm?” Is asked against his mouth.

“I love you.” Hal says.

Jason laughs, “I love you too.” And it’s easy, it’s so easy in a way Hal never expected it to be.

He thinks of the ring hidden in his sock drawer, silver with a perpendicular green stripe, unaware of the other ring in the pantry, engraved with a sun and he thinks of the smile Jason gives him when he returns home.

He leans in to kiss Jason again, feels the gloveless hand reach for his waist and he smiles.

For once, he thinks the universe got it right.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed, i had a lot of fun writing it :)  
> title comes from 'don't you know' by jaymes young


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